From Barack to Beverley

A CAMPAIGNER for new US President Barack Obama returned to politics a little closer to home – in the office of Stretford and Urmston MP Bev Hughes. Mike Joslin, a politics student at Manchester University, spent five months working for the new President of the USA, who officially took over from George Bush this week.

A CAMPAIGNER for new US President Barack Obama returned to politics a little closer to home – in the office of Stretford and Urmston MP Bev Hughes.

Mike Joslin, a politics student at Manchester University, spent five months working for the new President of the USA, who officially took over from George Bush this week.

The 21-year-old first went across the pond to join the campaign in June 2007, after spotting an advert on the internet, and was one of 12 chosen from more than 1,000 applicants from around the world.

He returned in September 2007, and went to work part time for Children’s Minister Bev Hughes, where he stayed for a year.

Bev said: "Michael worked in my office during part of last year.

"His experience of the Obama campaign was really interesting and he brought this back to us locally and gave me much food for thought about modern political campaigning.

"His enthusiasm for all things politics is infectious and he does a fantastic job volunteering for the Labour Party in Greater Manchester and across the country."

A politics enthusiast who joined the Labour party when he was 15, Mike said that helping out on the campaign was an incredible experience.

He said: "Obama is a very intelligent man and really on the ball. I went around campaigning with him about 10 times and saw him meet hundreds of people, and with everyone he has a great deal of humour, wit and warmth."

He said that Obama never seemed nervous, just very focused and driven, and spent as much time talking to individual people about their healthcare issues as he did speaking at major rallies. Mike added: "It was great – I loved it, even though it was very pressured.

"I was doing lots of research on policy as well as going door knocking and calling contacts, and I was working from eight in the morning until ten at night, seven days a week.

"He was grateful for the work the interns did, as he came into the office one day and told us all how much he appreciated that we’d all come so far to help him and his campaign.

"I’m really proud that it all paid off and that he’s now the president." Mike, who lives in the Ladybarn, south Manchester, now volunteers for Lucy Powell, Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Withington.